Clinton to Tackle Economy Before Taking Office

Setting an early deadline for action, President-elect Bill Clinton told congressional leaders Thursday that he intends to put forward the broad outlines of his own plan to stimulate the economy even before taking office in January.

In a fruitful first day of meetings on Capitol Hill, Clinton also vowed to maintain close ties with Congress.

He said his pre-Inauguration Day proposal would serve as a basis to seek “consensus” around an economic program he would unveil in his State of the Union address. The preview, which he promised as he stood flanked by Republicans and Democrats in the Capitol’s cavernous Statuary Hall, would send a powerful signal of his determination to act quickly to confront the nation’s economic problems.

Paying his first post-election visit to the Capitol, Clinton won praise from members of both parties, some of whom said his command of details on a wide range of issues was impressive.

“He didn’t need any 5x7 cards to talk to us,” said Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

But it also was quickly evident that any Clinton Administration proposal for economic stimulus will have to overcome a deep reservoir of concern among lawmakers who may be inclined to put a higher priority than his on reducing the size of the federal budget deficit.

As the President-elect moved from one meeting to another, the trade-off between economic growth and deficit reduction was believed to have been a constant topic of discussion. And even as they greeted Clinton with open-armed collegiality, some Republicans found subtle ways to warn him against being overeager to give the economy a budget-busting boost.

House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.), who stood with Clinton and fellow congressional leaders at a crowded Capitol news conference, said he believed “the President-elect is quite conscious and well aware of the dilemma of attempting to stimulate the economy on the one hand without exacerbating the budget deficit that confronts us.”

And Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), soon to be the highest-ranking member of his party in government, said he thought the incoming Democratic President understood “he’s got some constituencies out there that’ll have to hold their breaths for awhile, because he’s got to deal with the economy and the deficit.”

As he met with the lawmakers for back-to-back meals and meetings, Clinton was said to have made clear that he was not yet ready to discuss in any detail the measures he intended to propose for an economy hobbled by slow growth and the deficit.

But congressional officials disclosed that Clinton already had begun to send top deputies to meet with key committee chairmen and their staffs to review options for economic stimulus. Aides to Clinton said he now hoped to issue a general outline of his economic proposals shortly after the New Year.

“He wants to go to the Hill, and say these are the broad goals of my economic package, now let’s work out the details,” Dee Dee Myers, his press secretary, said. In the news conference, Clinton said he hoped to “close the loops on the details of our policy in advance of my being sworn-in.”

The Arkansas governor, who also has promised to convene a summit of economic experts to assist in developing the plan, is not known for adhering to the deadlines he sets. In giving himself a caveat to his pledge, he said only that he was “going to do my best” and would “try” to meet the self-imposed deadline.

But some of his advisers, who have been privately critical of the planned summit, quickly embraced the strategy as a means to help the incoming President gain control of the economic agenda.

A senior adviser said a quick decision on the economic plan would permit Clinton to tell Americans: “I know what I want to do, and I’m not going to wait until the inauguration to get started on it.”

On a day in which he also met privately with Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Clinton continued to give top priority, with apparent success, to efforts to build relations among his new colleagues and neighbors.

On an early morning jog from his Lafayette Park hotel, Clinton headed past the White House, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Monument before heading back uptown for a coffee-stop at a McDonald’s restaurant. He told reporters he intended to repeat the routine even after taking office--if it didn’t give his Secret Service agents “a coronary.”

In going so soon to Capitol Hill, Clinton seemed mindful of the mistakes made by his most recent Democratic predecessor, Jimmy Carter, who found his options limited early in his Administration when he alienated even members of his own party among the congressional leadership.

Instead, Clinton stressed his faith in cooperation. After years of battles between the White House and the Congress, he opened his joint press conference with the congressional leaders by saying that the American people “want the finger-pointing and the blame-placing to stop.”

Vice President-elect Al Gore followed Clinton to the microphone to suggest that the day of meetings would mark a political watershed. “If you listen carefully,” said Gore, “you can hear today the first sounds of gridlock loosening.”

Only last weekend, Dole went out of his way to make clear that he had no intention of forsaking his party’s agenda. But on Thursday he was an emblem of gentlemanliness, saying he and Clinton had not had any disagreements “today,” and thanking his Democratic hosts for including him at the breakfast and lunch.

“When you’re a Republican these days,” he said, “you take all you can get.”

Sen. Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, another Republican leader known for his sharp partisanship, met separately with Gore, whom Clinton has asked to serve as his legislative liaison. “We’ve whacked on each other in the past and we agreed to stop whacking and do what we have to do,” Simpson said later.

Beyond the warm greetings, however, Clinton aides and top Democrats alike expressed a sense of feeling overwhelmed as they began to survey the task before them. Myers said the President-elect’s team was having to adjust to the sudden reality of the deadlines ahead.

“In a campaign,” she said, “you talk about what you want to do. Now that you’re in an Administration, you have to think about how are we going to do it. It’s a different mind-set.”

And Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), chairman of the House Budget Committee, who met Thursday afternoon with Harvard professor Robert B. Reich, former campaign aide Gene Sperling, and others among Clinton’s top economic aides for the transition, said he was concerned at the size of the budget deficit Clinton may face.

“If Clinton is going to get off the starting blocks early, you’ve got to start talking about policy plans now rather than later,” Panetta said.

But on the second day of his two-day visit to Washington, the conviviality seemed almost irrepressible as the next President and his likely adversaries paid tribute to one another, particularly at a luncheon attended by both Republican and Democratic leaders from the House and the Senate.

After Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) finished speaking in his deep Southern drawl, the Arkansas-born Clinton drew laughter when he said he was glad to hear that someone else in the room did not speak with a foreign accent.

“I thought it was a very positive start,” Lott said afterward. “We want to work with him everywhere we can. . . . There’s always goodwill for a new President.”

Times staff writers David Lauter and Michael Ross contributed to this story.